CYPRUS / Immigration: 19.000 applications for political asylum are pending!

The need for further support of the Republic of Cyprus in the field of return of third country nationals to its countries of origin was discussed by the Minister of Interior Mr. Nikos Nouris with the Regional Director of FRONTEX Mr. Grigoris Apostolou.

At the meeting held today at noon, the Minister briefed the Regional Director on the migration challenges facing the Republic of Cyprus, saying that Cyprus has the undesirable first place in terms of population asylum, compared to other countries. EU members.

He stressed that stimulated inflows from Turkey through the occupied territories remain a big problem, describing the green line as the "Achilles' heel" of irregular arrivals. He noted that there seems to be a rapid increase in arrivals this period reaching 1216 only for the month of March.

Mr. Nouris said that, despite the clear improvement in the procedures for examining asylum applications, the requests of almost 19,000 people are still pending.

Therefore, Mr. Nouris requested the assistance of FRONTEX for the substantial strengthening of the Returns Office in order to maximize its efficiency.

For his part, the Regional Director of FRONTEX noted that the cooperation of the Organization with the Republic of Cyprus in recent years has expanded and stressed the geometric progress that has been achieved in asylum procedures. He noted that great leaps have been made, in addition to the forced ones, to the voluntary returns.

Mr. Apostolou expressed the availability of FRONTEX for further support and financing of returns, while assuring that efforts will be made to strengthen the Republic of Cyprus with special experts to address the increased needs that Cyprus faces.

Finally, it was agreed to arrange technical meetings between the competent bodies in order to speed up the wheeling procedures of a more efficient return system.